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Thomas DeSimone
Thomas Anthony "Two-Gun Tommy" DeSimone b. May 24, 1950 – , d. January 14, 1979) was an associate of the Lucchese crime family in New York. Also known as "Tommy D", he was a nephew of Los Angeles mob boss Frank DeSimone. He was married to Angelica "Cookie" Spione, but was a constant womanizer whose mistresses included Theresa Ferrara. His story was depicted in the 1990 Martin Scorcese film GoodFellas as "Tommy DeVito", portrayed by Joe Pesci. Family tree Thomas DeSimone's great uncle Rosario DeSimone was the boss over Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas from 1931 until his death in 1946. Thomas' paternal uncle, Frank DeSimone, was a criminal attorney-turned-mobster; "Uncle Frank" (as he was known) replaced Jack Dragna in 1957 after the latter's death, becoming the second DeSimone family member to become Los Angeles crime family boss. Thomas is the cousin of Salvatore DeSimone, who would later become a Los Angeles, California Catholic priest. Thomas' sister was Dolores DeSimone and his two brothers were Gambino crime family associate Robert DeSimone (imprisoned for life) and Gambino associate Anthony DeSimone, murdered by mobster Thomas Agro in early 1970s. Thomas was also related to mobsters James DeSimone, Joseph DeSimone, Ralph DeSimone, Phil and Frank DeSimone. Thomas was the brother-in-law of mobster Joseph "The Barber" Spione. His sister Phyllis was Jimmy Burke's mistress since she had been sixteen years old. He is the ex-father-in-law of Gambino crime family associate and post-op transexual Salvatore DeVita and uncle-in-law to Sivio P. DeVita from Toms River, New Jersey. Association with Vario and Burke DeSimone worked under Mafia Capo Paul Vario with his friends Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill; DeSimone and Hill had known one another since they were young men, when Burke took them on as his protégés. DeSimone was involved in truck Carjacking/hijacking, dealing stolen property, extortion, fraud, and murder. DeSimone's violent temper was well known. While playing pinochle with Joseph Iannuzzi and Thomas Agro, he started throwing darts at the other players when he started losing. Hill described DeSimone and Burke by saying, "It didn't take anything for these guys to kill you. They liked it. They would sit around drinking booze and talk about their favorite hits. They enjoyed talking about them." Hill later described DeSimone as a "pure psychopath". Hill said that DeSimone had something to prove because his older brother Anthony had become an informant and was allegedly murdered by the Gambino family. Disappearance and death DeSimone was assassinated as a reprisal for having killed two of John Gotti's close friends: William Devino and Ronald Jerothe. On January 14, 1979, DeSimone's wife, Angela, reported him missing. Following the Lufthansa heist, Theresa Ferrara, Martin Krugman, Robert McMahon, Joe Manri, Parnell Edwards and Paolo LiCastri had all been murdered by Burke, who wanted to avoid paying them their share of the loot. For years, the Villiage People and the FBI believed that DeSimone had either been murdered by Burke, or that he was in hiding to avoid being killed. His brother-in-law, Lucchese family member Joseph "The Barber" Spione, also disappeared shortly afterward. When Hill became an FBI informant in 1980, he told authorities that DeSimone had been murdered by the Gambino crime family. The full details were unknown until 1994, when Hill, in his book Gangsters and Goodfellas, gave the whole story of the events leading up to DeSimone's death. Hill's wife, Karen, had been having an affair with Hill's boss, Lucchese Crime Family Capo Paul Vario. When Hill was sentenced to prison, DeSimone approached Karen for sex. When she turned him down, DeSimone attempted to rape her. In retaliation for the attempted rape, Vario approached the Gambino crew and revealed that DeSimone had murdered Ronald Jerothe and William Devino without first seeking permission from the Gambino crime family, violating Mafia protocol. On January 14, 1979, DeSimone was contacted and told that he was going to be "made." Peter Vario and Bruno Facciolo took him to a house, where he was whacked by Thomas Agro. Agro confessed in 1985 that he was the driving force behind the ruse. Thomas Agro assassinated him on the orders of John Gotti, and also admitted to murdering DeSimone's brother, Anthony DeSimome, after he turned informant. Agro admitted this to informant Joseph Iannuzzi. Agro also at times suggested murdering the eldest and last remaining brother, Robert DeSimone. According to Ianuzzi, Agro would often laughingly refer to killing the third DeSimone brother, stating that "Maybe it is time to go for the DeSimone trifecta!" Another account, told by Hill in Gangsters and GoodFellas, states that Gotti himself was the assassin. On May 17, 2007 on the Howard Stern Show, Hill reaffirmed that Gotti had killed DeSimone. According to retired NYPD Commanding Officer Joe Coffey on an interview for the Bio channel's "Mobsters", Tommy Desimone was brought down to the basement of John Gotti's Bergin Hunt & Fish club in Ozone Park. From there Tommy was cut in half with a chainsaw, carried out of Bergin in garbage bags and disposed of somewhere off the Atlantic Ocean. DeSimone was declared legally dead by the FBI in 1990. He was thought to have been buried at a suspected "Mafia graveyard" on the Brooklyn-Queens border http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article490845.ece near John F. Kennedy International Airport, where the body of Alphonse Indelicato was found by children in 1981, and the bodies of Phillip Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera were recovered by police in 2004. However, his remains have never been located. Category:Associates Category:Lucchese Crime Family Category:Lufthansa Heist Category:Murdered Mobsters